Comment Please, no (Score 1) 99
I do not want Amazon delivering my order to me at work.
I do not want Amazon delivering my order to me at work.
a police investigation has determined that the knife was illegal.
Just think about the meaning of that.
Now, the officers still should have treated Gray like a human being,
We agree on that. Police custody should be one of the safest places for a person to be. I'm not talking about prison, mind you, but simply when they're in the hands of police officers. A police force that has a culture which accepts the "rough ride" for uncharged suspects is not a lot better than the Chicago Police Department's famous "torture squad", who are now the reason Chicago residents are on the hood for dozens of multimillion dollar settlements.
Racist, brutal policing minimizes all of us. Local police forces, given practically unlimited weaponry and adversarial attitudes toward the people they're supposed to protect (not to mention the out-and-out racism, from officers of all races) is a recipe for more of these situations.
And let's not forget, if there hadn't been video of the arrest, this would have been a case of, "The thug tried to grab a cop's gun" which has become the "Blue Shield's" way of describing every encounter with young African Americans. If we didn't have video of the cop shooting Walter Scott and then dropping his taser next to the body, do you doubt that the discussion of that case would have been, "Scott should not have taken the cop's taser".
There are some sub-populations in the U.S. that tend to live extremely unhealthy lifestyles; sub-populations that never enter into the national averages in the top-ranking countries. I predict that if those sub-populations were factored out, the U.S. would shoot to the top in a ranking of health outcomes.
You've just made a very good case for comprehensive, universal, single-payer health care in the United States.
Because health care isn't just about waiting until you're really sick. And other countries do a much better job educating their populations about health and making preventive medicine cheap or free.
But here in the US, we leave it to the "Free Market" who doesn't really give a fuck if you die painfully of congestive heart failure, as long as you consumed as much as possible while you're alive.
Those "sub-populations" you're talking about about? Those are called, "Americans".
You still haven't explained why there is no paramilitary police presence for white riots.
I gave you plenty to look at, and not an armored vehicle or body armor or rubber bullet or masked officers with no badges or nametags anywhere in sight.
So why the different response for white riots? Same violence, same property damage and looting. Different skin color.
I know you hate the idea that you've got it easier because of the color of your skin. I'll bet a day comes when you're ready to admit it.
What? He took of running, just as he'd done previously in advance of being arrested and convicted for criminal behavior.
And for that, he received the death penalty.
Not sure you've been following the story either, because the legality is still up in the air
Either way, Freddie Gray was not stopped for having a pocket knife in his pocket. He was stopped for making eye contact. And he was killed for being black.
You know, I've got a knife just like that in my car right now. It's a Columbia River 1100 Moxie and it's a little bit bigger than the one Freddie Gray is accused of carrying. And I've driven through Maryland on numerous occasions. I guarantee that if I get stopped and that knife is discovered in the little well on the driver's side door, the cops aren't going to tune me up and send me for a "rough ride" because I'm white. Even though I've probably got an arrest record longer than Freddie Gray's (I was kind of a wild kid back in the day). Hell, when I was Freddie Gray's age, I had a cop stop me with a half-ounce of weed in my pocket. He gave it back and gave me a warning. If I was black, I'd be eating grey baloney so fast it would make your head spin. Freddie Gray's "criminal record"? Minor drug offenses that I guarantee police wouldn't even inconvenience a white teenager from Bethesda over. Or even Essex or Dundalk.
Because white skin is a get out of jail free card in the US unless you are really an asshole. And even then, you'll get a shit-ton of benefit of the doubt. Maybe a suspended sentence or probation for the same offense that would get a black kid a solid dime.
As has been pointed out before, even the police departments themselves recognize the racism in their institution. If you are white and you don't think there is a discrepancy in the way the races are treated by police, it's because you are white. Nothing is harder to see than your own privilege.
but the knife almost certainly was illegal by Baltimore city statue,
Keep up with the story. They've already released the type and size of the knife, and that knife is not illegal in Baltimore. The arrest was almost certainly illegal.
One thing that all of those shootings have in common is that the deceased has either run from the officer, physically attacked the officer, or both.
Even the cases where the men were shot by police with their hands cuffed behind their back? Take a look above. I've listed four cases where young minority men were shot by police while cuffed.
That's not what is alleged.
In fact, it is. The arrest itself is alleged by the prosecutor to have been illegal, and the very first thing in the police report regarding the reason Gray was stopped was "made eye contact". The knife Gray was carrying was not illegal. Indeed, depending on the state, it's probably not even illegal to run away when you see police.
Do I really have to list the names of unarmed black men who have been recently killed by police just to demonstrate that running away may in fact be the smartest thing that one can do?
Non-black people are attacked by police every day.
Really? You see any riot police in paramilitary gear in the below pictures? Any white "thugs" getting shot in the back while running away? Hell, if you're white, you don't even have to run away. White guys have walked into movie theaters armed like Rambo and murdered a bunch of people in cold blood and the police take them alive and make sure they don't bump their head on the cruiser door when placing them in the back seat.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...
https://www.google.com/search?...
You can not possibly believe that interactions between police and white people are anything like interactions between police and black people or hispanic people. Let me ask you this: You hear about any white people who have been shot and killed in police custody with their hands handcuffed behind their back?
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new...
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/in...
That's an interesting finding of facts on your part - can you cite some established evidence?
Yes, the police report made by the arresting officer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"According to the charging documents submitted by the Baltimore police,[27] at 8:39 a.m, Lieutenant Brian W. Rice, Officer Edward Nero, and Officer Garrett E. Miller were patrolling on bicycles and "made eye contact" with Gray,[24][28][29"
He was stopped because he was a well known criminal hanging out in a high-crime area who took off running as soon as he saw the police and wouldn't stop when asked to.
Do you blame him for running? Freddie Gray was not a suspect in a crime. He was not seen doing anything illegal. He was not found to be engaged in any illegal activity. He fucking made eye contact. He did not show sufficient humility in the face of police presence by casting his eyes downward as young black men are supposed to.
Motherfucker, you've got big white militia assholes carrying automatic weapons and drawing down on Federal officers and the cops are polite and careful not to hurt their delicate feels. A young black man makes eye contact and he's sent to the morgue. You think these guys ever have to worry about "making eye contact" with law enforcement?
http://www.capitolhillblue.com...
Wake the fuck up.
Remember, Freddie Gray was stopped by police, who later killed him just for eyeballing them.
If you want to play on-the-spot eyewitness news reporter with your cell phone, you should try your best to have white skin.
Why didn't you give us a link to that quote? Just curious.
And maybe the waiting periods for those hip replacements in Canada (for some reason, these articles always cite hip replacements) should be weighed against the people in the US who are simply denied hip replacement surgery by their insurance companies or cannot afford the out-of-pocket.
You see, waiting periods can be very misleading. You have to compare outcomes.
perl is a write-only language. It's *supposed* to be incomprehensible gibberish.
Carbon Dioxide. It's got what plants crave.
Now if we could just raise the level of electrolytes in the atmosphere, we'll have a veritable paradise.
Does this mean I'll be able to run gedit on my Ubuntu phone? I can hardly contain my excitement.
The world is no nursery. - Sigmund Freud
